166 The ‘ Kols” of Chota-Nagpore. 
depopulated ever since. No traveller ever ventured to pass through 
their country. No Bramin, Rajpoot or other Hindoo caste, or Mussal- 
man was suffered to reside in it. 
In 1820, the Agent Governor-General, Major Roughsedge, entered 
the Colehan at the head of a force consisting of a battalion of infantry, 
with cavalry and artillery. He was surprised to find the wild race, 
of whom he had heard such disparaging accounts, in possession of an 
open undulating and richly cultivated country, studded with villages 
in groves of magnificent tamarind and mango trees, abounding in 
unusual indications of rural wealth. He was allowed to enter on this 
scene unmolested, but the slaughter of some of his camp-followers, 
who had incautiously strayed into one of the villages, demonstrated 
the hostility of the people, and an attempt to capture the murderers 
brought about the first collision between the Hos and our troops. 
A party of cavalry, sent to the offending village, was met in the open 
field by 300 warriors, who undauntedly advanced to meet the charge, 
rushed between the ranks of the horsemen, hacking especially at the 
horses with their formidable battle-axes, and shewing no disposition to 
yield or to turn, till half their number had been sabred or shot. In 
the village where the murder was committed, was found a reserve of 
60 men who fought desperately and were all killed! The same evening 
another body of Lurkahs* attacked the rear of the column and cut 
off a convoy of supplies. It became necessary to act with vigour, and’ 
the old Hos of the present day describe the retaliation that now fell 
upon them as dreadfully severe. Hventually some intercepted mails 
were restored uninjured, as a token of submission, and the Lurka chiefs 
in the vicinity entered into engagements to acknowledge and pay 
tribute to the Rajah of Singbhoom.+ 
_ Major Roughsedge met with further opposition in his progress 
towards Sumbulpoor through the Southern Peers: he had in fact to 
fight his way out of the country ; and on his leaving it a war broke 
out between the Kols who had submitted, and those who had not. 
One hundred Hindustanee burkundazes under a Soobadar were sent 
by the Agent to the support of the Rajah and his Lurka allies, and 
this for a time gave them the advantage; but the Soobadar having 
* “Taraka,”’ the fighters, a common name for the Hos. 
} Major Roughsedge’s dispatches. 
